Is std::string ref-counted in GCC 4.x / C++11?

Question

Is std::string reference-counted when using gcc 4 with -std=c++0x or -std=c++11?

Answer 1

Adding some useful information that post-dates this question.

std::string will no longer be reference-counted with the release of GCC 5, to address this C++11 requirement.

From https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-5/changes.html

A new implementation of std::string is enabled by default, using the small string optimization instead of copy-on-write reference counting.